The best online investment sites.With the Internet, Wall Street can be anywhere you want it to be. The vast amount of online information will keep you in the loop no matter where you are located. The following list, in alphabetical order, contains some keys sites with informations investors -- and the CPAs who work with them -- should know about: newsletters from analysts, corporate directories, stock quotes and general financial news. Most of these are free, but some are subscription services. However, even the for-fee services usually have a free trial period, so you can see if a service is right for you. On the page virtually every site has in common is a disclaimer: Nobody guarantees a Web site as a true path to financial success. A slick See SLC. Web site is no more a guarantee of useful, accurate information than a slick newsletter. Although the sites below were recommended by users or listed on major search engines, the rule on the Web, like elsewhere, is caveat emptor [Latin, Let the buyer beware.] A warning that notifies a buyer that the goods he or she is buying are "as is," or subject to all defects. When a sale is subject to this warning the purchaser assumes the risk that the product might be either defective or . The Journal thanks the following for sharing their favorite sites: Marjorie Meyer, a sole practitioner in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts Located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, Chestnut Hill is a wealthy suburban village notable for its stately old houses, scenic landscape, and the historic campus of Boston College. ; Mike Ruff, a financial adviser in Pampa, Texas Pampa is a city in Gray County, Texas, United States. The population was 17,887 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Gray County.GR6 Geography Pampa is located at (35.543005, -100.964744). ; and Milton Baker, a CPA (Computer Press Association, Landing, NJ) An earlier membership organization founded in 1983 that promoted excellence in computer journalism. Its annual awards honored outstanding examples in print, broadcast and electronic media. The CPA disbanded in 2000. in Michigan. ABC News
ABC News is a division of American television and radio network ABC, owned by The Walt Disney Company. Its current president is David Westin. http://www.abcnews.com Click on the business button on the home page for extensive financial news with a strong international flavor. For example, in November, ABC News covered the fall of a major Japanese securities firm, currency speculation in the Pacific Rim Pacific Rim, term used to describe the nations bordering the Pacific Ocean and the island countries situated in it. In the post–World War II era, the Pacific Rim has become an increasingly important and interconnected economic region. and recent OPEC OPEC: see Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC in full Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Multinational organization established in 1960 to coordinate the petroleum production and export policies of its deliberations. Daily Stocks http://www.dailystocks.com These pages are densely packed with well-organized resource lists. Enter either a ticker symbol Ticker Symbol An arrangement of characters (usually letters) representing a particular security listed on an exchange or otherwise traded publicly. When a company issues securities to the public marketplace, it selects an available ticker symbol for its securities which investors or company name for quotes, news charts and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Look at the site's many links under IPOS/Filings, Earnings, Insiders (analyses), Mutual Funds, Tech Stocks and Futures. The site also offers an extensive list of market summaries and financial columns from a variety of sources. "Please bookmark A stored location for quick retrieval at a later date. Web browsers provide bookmarks that contain the addresses (URLs) of favorite sites. Most electronic references, large text databases and help systems provide bookmarks that mark a location users want to revisit in the future. me now," says the site, "'cause you will come back." The Financial Center http://www.tfc.com The Financial Center is the home of "Wall Street's Market Mavens Market Maven Slang used to describe a good investor who is "in-the-know." It also implies opinion leadership. Notes: In general, the term is used to describe consumers who have up-to-date information about products, places to shop, and different markets. ." Go here for analysts, links to brokerage firms that provide online trading Online Trading Making trades via the Internet. Notes: The use of online trading increased dramatically in the mid to late 1990's with the advent of high-speed computers and Internet connections. Stocks, bonds, options, futures, and currencies can all be traded online. , stock quotes, a news desk, an online bookstore for investors and chat rooms. If you have speakers and a sound card, you can take an audio tour of the site. Sign up for e-mail alerts of when "market mavens" will be online offering advice. FundAlarm http://www.fundalarm.com FundAlarm describes itself as a free noncommercial Web site designed to help investors decide when to sell mutual funds. It has a database of about 1,000 funds and provides information on manager changes, for example, as wen as highlights and commentary. FundAlarm also provides a general introduction to the topic of selling mutual funds and describes its benchmarking system for judging funds. Ibbotson Associates http://www.ibbotson.com/research/iafp96.htm lbbotson Associates, a consulting and training company, has posted an extensive, well-organized online research resource list. Under Practitioner Daily Use, look for forums, e-mail lists and market tracking sites. Want information on federal bonds? International investing? These pages have several resources. Bookmark this site for continued use; the authors even have a "new and notable" section. InfoBeat http://www.infobeat.com A general, free news service, InfoBeat sends e-mail newsletters every day directly to you. If you check "finance" at registration, InfoBeat will send closing prices and news for a custom portfolio of market indices, mutual funds and securities. InfoBeat even promises news alerts e-mailed throughout the day with information that can't wait until tomorrow's newspapers. Longer stories appear on the Web site. INVESTools http://www.investools.com Advertising itself as giving "trusted advice for independent investors," this site contains both articles and useful tools. In November, for example, INVESTools offered information on a "relative strength methodology," baseline company reports and a weekly update and analysis. The site also contains proprietary charts and Standard & Poor's stock reports. INVESTools presents a rotating ro·tate v. ro·tat·ed, ro·tat·ing, ro·tates v.intr. 1. To turn around on an axis or center. 2. series of featured advisers, such as Al Frank, the editor of the Prudent Speculator Speculator A person who trades (i.e. derivatives, commodities, bonds, equities or currencies) with a higher-than-average risk, in return for a higher-than-average profit potential. Researchmag.com http://www.researchmag.com This site, an online newsletter and database, claims to have in-depth investment information on more than 10,000 stocks and 5,000 mutual funds. Visitors can go to featured investments, shareholder news or stock quotes sections, for example. For the new visitor, it even has a site tour. The "featured companies" it lists pay Researchmag.com to post the profiles they provide. However, the site posts objective information as well. Riskview http://www.riskview.com Riskview provides investors with exhaustive databases: more than five years of Dow Jones Dow Jones the best known of several U.S. indexes of movements in price on Wall Street. [Am. Hist.: Payton, 202] See : Finance Global Indexes' historical data for about 3,000 equities. For free, visitors can run financial and risk analytics including historical returns and volatilities, risk-return analyses, forecast volatilities and correlations, portfolio performance analyses and value at risk. These Web pages claim considerable accuracy as a result of Riskview's close association with Dow Jones. Securities and Exchange Commission http:/www.sec.gov These government pages may turn out to be the small investor's best online friend. The site's enforcement section has an "investor alerts" page describing possible frauds. Investors also will want to visit the "investor assistance and complaints" section. Among the November news items was an announcement of a pilot securities arbitration clinic to help small investors Small investor An individual person investing in small quantities of stock or bonds. This group of investors makes up a minimal fraction of total stock ownership. small investor . StockFind http://www.stockfind.newsalert.com StockFind offers stock quotes, which visitors can find by ticker symbol or company name. There's also an IPO (Initial Public Offering) The first time a company offers shares of stock to the public. While not a computer term per se, many founders, employees and insiders of computer companies have found this acronym more exciting than any tech term they ever heard. corner and a "What's Hot, What's Not" column. Search for financial news by industry. Especially useful, and located right on the home page, is an up-to-the-minute corporate earnings announcements list. The Street http://www.thestreet.com The Street is a financial newsletter that describes itself as "tightly written, aggressively opinionated o·pin·ion·at·ed adj. Holding stubbornly and often unreasonably to one's own opinions. [Probably from obsolete opinionate : opinion + -ate1. ... [and] fun to read." With lots of icons and a lively designs, the site is one of the brashest financial resources. It offers plenty of news and analysis, such as "Keep an Eye on Intel," "Flight to Quality Buoys General Equity Funds" and interviews with top money managers. The Value Advisor Newsletter http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/~sequel/value.htm This newsletter is for "knowledgeable stock investors who are interested in the selection and analysis of equities that are significantly undervalued Undervalued A stock or other security that is trading below its true value. Notes: The difficulty is knowing what the "true" value actually is. Analysts will usually recommend an undervalued stock with a strong buy rating. by the market." Each month it features five stocks and reports on past selections it believes are still good buys. The Wall Street Directory http://www.wsdinc.com These pages are a series of finance-related search engines covering companies, products, services and sources for investors. Under Wall Street Malls, search the investors' bookstore or financial newsstand. Also, visitors can type in ticker symbols for charts and quotes, reports and company news. Additional services include historical data research and a list of technical analysis programs. Think of these pages as your 24-hour-a-day administrative assistant. Yahoo! Business http://www.yahoo.com One of the most popular search engines, Yahoo also offers extensive resources for investors. Yahoo is organized as a series of categories that get more and more specific the further you drill down. Click on the business and economy section and note the subcategories appropriate for your needs. Yahoo may not link to every stock exchange in the world, but it comes pretty close. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion